CHARLOTTE -- I’ll give Duke Coach David Cutcliffe lots of credit for getting the Blue Devils to the Belk Bowl this year.

Though Cincinnati beat the Blue Devils, 48-34, at Bank of America Stadium, it was a good showing by Duke. What these Blue Devils did in this season shows how they’ve grown by leaps and bounds as a program with Cutcliffe. It’s almost as if coach and team were meant for each other. Twice, Cutcliffe has spurned Tennessee, a place where he has roots with Peyton Manning, to be in Durham.

Cutcliffe seems to have found something special. He took the job knowing he’d been under the radar with Duke basketball grabbing a good bit of attention. But maybe that’s how Cutcliffe wants it in an ACC football league stuck amid mediocrity at times.

That’s why this season and a 6-7 record with wins over Wake Forest, Virginia and North Carolina has been a breakthrough of sorts. The team nearly had its first winning record since 1994. Gone are the 0-fer seasons, the sub-par teams and the football summit with past Blue Devils wondering why Duke can’t be great again. With Cutcliffe, a new way of thinking seems to have this Duke team back on track.

The Blue Devils started started off Thursday’s game with a new life. It had been months since the team’s last win during the season, but you could see a renewed spirit among players and fans. Duke took the ball down field on the first drive and scored. A missed extra-point kick almost led to a two-point conversion after kicker Ross Martin missed out scoring. But the fans loved it.

Later, at the 4:45 mark of the first quarter, Tony Foster blocked a punt and recovered for another score. In Carolina ‘territory,’ it was quite the sound to hear chants of ‘Let’s Go Duke’ emanating from the stands instead of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Not wanting to be outdone, even the Blue Devil punting crew got into the act. Will Monday’s 79-yard punt was a Belk Bowl record. It was also the third longest punt in Blue Devil history and one of several Belk Bowl records set in the game by the team. The way the ball jigged and danced near the out-of-bounds lane before dying in front of the endzone, it almost seemed like Duke was going to be OK in this one.

Duke’s offense operated so effectively at times, I was reminded of Clarkston Hines, Randy Cuthbert, Dave Brown, Greg Boone -- and even Steve Spurrier -- from back in the day. Now, it is Anthony Boone, Jamison Crowder and Josh Snead that the team will put its hopes on in the coming seasons.

On Thursday, you could tell the players were charged up. If you are an ACC fan, you’ve got to love Duke’s offensive drive with Cutcliffe at the helm.